Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1991
Abstract
Alan Boye's guide is complete in ways that Nebraskans and others who travel in Nebraska would find useful and interesting. I read with a map in one hand and felt a recurring urge to get on the road and verify the existence of these places. Being a native Nebraskan, I have visited, camped upon, canoed down, or hiked across much of Nebraska. Boye describes all the familiar places as I remember them and summarizes their history. The heart of the book is found in the historical trivia, however, the human interest anecdotes about local people from little known places. There is Susan Hill, who died of poisoned water along the Oregon Trail near Kenesaw. Her husband built her coffin from the lumber of his wagon, then walked back to Omaha for a stone marker that he hauled 160 miles to the site in a wheelbarrow. Boye relates story after story involving travelers on the Oregon Trail, always pin-pointing where the ruts are still visible.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 11:2 (Spring 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.